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Providence Starting Five: Aug. 9

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News and notes from around Providence and college basketball.

1. Top power forward recruit Alex Owens tweeted that he will visit Providence this weekend. The school’s Elite Camp is Saturday, so there will be dozens of young recruits on campus with him. Friarbasketball.com will be on hand for the event.

2. Cox Sports has an insightful breakdown of where Providence might look in the wake of Donovan Mitchell’s decision to attend Louisville.

3. The New York Post’s Zach Braziller writes of how a “high school stud teaches Providence how brutal recruiting can be.”

“It’s a bad business,” one veteran college coach said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “That happens all the time — the haves and the have-nots. Recruiting is hard, people don’t realize. At the end of the day, you’re dealing with a 17- or 18-year-old kid making a decision.”

This is in no way a criticism of Mitchell, a well-mannered and respectful kid who will go from Elmsford, N.Y., to the hoops haven of Louisville, Ky. He’s loyal, by all accounts, sticking with The City AAU program, an unheralded group he helped turn into a local power, rather than jumping to other premier teams, like so many others his age.

“He has a ton of character,” said Arjay Perovic, The City’s director and Mitchell’s coach. “He wants to do what’s right. Donovan was the heart of our program. I know a lot of people were after him. Not only is Donovan a great basketball player, but he’s a better kid. He’s a leader.”

Mitchell’s mother, Nicole, described Blaney and Cooley as “very respectable men,” but she also said, “it’s not first-come, first-serve.

“It’s what’s going to work for the person,” she said. “It has to be a good match. … When you have that opportunity you may not get again, you jump on it.”

There is, of course, no loyalty when it comes to recruiting. Players aren’t getting paid, scholarships can get pulled, coaches leave. Mitchell saw a better opportunity at Louisville, an possible path to the NBA, a better opportunity for March glory, and took it.

“Louisville won a national championship [in 2013],” Perovic said. “That’s what Donovan’s about. I love Providence, I love Ed Cooley and I love their coaching staff, but Donovan is trying to play at the highest level.”

That doesn’t speak complimentary of the new Big East.

Providence certainly has benefited from this too, when programs smaller in stature than the Friars have led for a prospect. Still, questions remain.

Will Louisville be patient if Mitchell struggles? Will the Cardinals recruit over him? The Cardinals will give him a scholarship, but are they as invested as Providence would have been? The Cardinals are in play for elite prospects every year.

“That’s a factor,” the college coach said, “he should have considered, definitely.”

4. A judge ruled the NCAA violated antitrust laws in the Ed O’bannon case.

5. The Elite 75 Frosh/Soph is returning in September. This event has featured young talent like Andre Drummond and Noah Vonleh in the past.

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